Weekly Update for April 13: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (Documentary) — Directed by Sophie Fiennes (Opens in NY; Opens in LA April 20)

“Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami” re-invents the music film as an electrifying journey through the performance, private, and public worlds of pop cultural icon Grace Jones, whose bold aesthetic echoes throughout the film. Larger than life, wild, scary, and androgynous — Grace Jones plays all these parts. Yet here we also discover her as a lover, daughter, mother, sister, and even grandmother, as she submits herself to our gaze, and allows us to understand what constitutes her mask. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Sophie Fiennes.

Nana (Documentary) — Co-Written and Directed by Serena Dykman (Opens in NY)

“Nana” documents director Serena Dykman’s journey with her mother, Alice, as they retrace her grandmother’s Auschwitz survival story. Born in Poland, Maryla Michalowski-Dyamant survived Ravensbruck, Malchow, and Auschwitz — where she was the forced translator for the “Angel of Death,” Josef Mengele. Maryla dedicated her life after the war to publicly speaking about her survival to younger generations. Alice and Serena explore how Maryla’s outspoken activism continues today, in a world where survivors are disappearing, and intolerance, racism, and anti-Semitism are on the rise. (Press materials)

The Judge (Documentary) — Directed by Erika Cohn (Opens in NY; Opens in LA April 20)

When she was a young lawyer, Kholoud Al-Faqih walked into the office of Palestine’s Chief Justice, and announced she wanted to join the bench — he laughed at her. But just a few years later, Kholoud became the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s Shari’a (Islamic law) courts. “The Judge” offers a unique portrait of Judge Kholoud — her brave journey as a lawyer, her tireless fight for justice for women, and her drop-in visits with clients, friends, and family. With unparalleled access to the courts, it presents an unfolding vérité legal drama, with rare insight into both Islamic law and gendered justice. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Erika Cohn.

Find screening info here.

Wildling (Also Available on VOD)

Since birth, Anna (Bel Powley) has been raised in isolation by a man she knows only as Daddy (Brad Dourif), who has done everything possible to conceal the truth about the girl’s origins from her. But when the teenage Anna is suddenly thrust into the real world under the protection of no-nonsense police officer Ellen (Liv Tyler), it soon becomes clear that the young woman is far from ordinary. Unable to adjust to a normal life, Anna finds herself drawn instead to the wild freedom of the forest while struggling to resist the growing bloodlust that has awakened inside her. (Press materials)

Cake

A woman, Zareen (Aamina Sheikh), who takes care of her aging parents and their land in Karachi, Pakistan, is joined by her sister, Zara (Sanam Saeed), when their parents’ health worsens. (Press materials)

Color Me You

Kat Abernathy (Kaley Caperton) must live up to her family name by attending law school and working for her family practice, until she is challenged to create a second identity for herself in order to pursue, defend, and protect her passion as a painter. (Press materials)

This Is Our Land (Opens in NY April 18)

Pauline (Émilie Dequenne), a self-employed nurse in a mining district in the north of France, raises her two children alone, and cares for her father, a former steelworker. Devoted and generous, her patients love her and count on her. Yet nobody sees that Pauline, who finds herself facing an increasingly harsh social reality, is slowly embarking on a path that no one in her family has taken before. A rising nationalist party, in a quest for respectability, is going to take advantage of her popularity by making her its candidate in the local elections. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

The Miracle Season — Co-Written by Elissa Matsueda
Where Is Kyra? — Written by Darci Picoult
Shelter
Pandas
Big Fish & Begonia
Gemini
Finding Your Feet — Co-Written by Meg Leonard
Acrimony
Tomb Raider — Co-Written by Geneva Robertson-Dworet
Unsane
Beauty and the Dogs — Written and Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania
Midnight Sun
Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (Documentary) — Directed by Lorna Tucker (UK)
I Got Life! — Co-Written and Directed by Blandine Lenoir (UK)
Mary Magdalene — Written by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett (UK)
The Happys
Apocalypsis
A Wrinkle in Time — Directed by Ava DuVernay; Written by Jennifer Lee
Meditation Park — Written and Directed by Mina Shum (Canada) (Also Available on Netflix)
Claire’s Camera
Red Sparrow
Oh Lucy! — Written and Directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi
Annihilation
Dark River — Written and Directed by Clio Barnard (UK)
November
Double Lover
Tehran Taboo
Winchester
A Fantastic Woman
The Post — Co-Written by Liz Hannah
Vazante — Co-Written and Directed by Daniela Thomas
In the Fade
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
In Between — Written and Directed by Maysaloun Hamoud
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water — Co-Written by Vanessa Taylor
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Alexandra Dean
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Lady Bird — Written and Directed by Greta Gerwig

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

20 Weeks — Written and Directed by Leena Pendharkar (Also Available on VOD)

“20 Weeks” follows a young couple navigating their first pregnancy, who during a routine scan discover a health condition that could gravely impact their baby, which forces them to re-examine their relationship and their future. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Leena Pendharkar.

Find screening info here.

The Rider — Written and Directed by Chloé Zhao (Opens in NY and LA)

Based on his true story, “The Rider” stars breakout Brady Jandreau as a once rising star of the rodeo circuit warned that his competition days are over after a tragic riding accident. Back home, Brady finds himself wondering what he has to live for when he can no longer do what gives him a sense of purpose: to ride and compete. In an attempt to regain control of his fate, Brady undertakes a search for a new identity, and tries to redefine his idea of what it means to be a man in the heartland of America. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Chloé Zhao.

Find screening info here.

Zama — Written and Directed by Lucrecia Martel (Opens in NY)

Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho), an officer of the Spanish Crown born in South America, waits for a letter from the King granting him a transfer from the town in which he is stagnating to a better place. His situation is delicate. He must ensure that nothing overshadows his transfer. He is forced to accept submissively every task entrusted to him by successive Governors who come and go as he stays behind. The years go by and the letter from the King never arrives. When Zama notices everything is lost, he joins a party of soldiers that go after a dangerous bandit. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

10×10 — Directed by Suzi Ewing (Also Available on VOD)

After meticulous planning and preparation, Lewis (Luke Evans) snatches Cathy (Kelly Reilly) off the busy streets, and locks her away in a soundproofed room measuring 10 feet by 10 feet. His motive: to have Cathy confess to a dark secret that she is determined to keep hidden. But Cathy has no intention of giving up so easily, and proves more than a match for her kidnapper. (Press materials)

I Am Not An Easy Man — Directed by Eleonore Pourriat; Written by Eleonore Pourriat and Ariane Fert (Available on Netflix)

A shameless chauvinist gets a taste of his own medicine when he wakes up in a world dominated by women and locks horns with a powerful female author. (Press materials)

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

You Were Never Really Here — Written and Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Blockers — Directed by Kay Cannon
Spiral (Documentary) — Directed by Laura Fairrie
Outside In — Co-Written and Directed by Lynn Shelton (Also Available on VOD)
Keep the Change — Written and Directed by Rachel Israel
Itzhak (Documentary) — Directed by Alison Chernick
The Party — Written and Directed by Sally Potter
Forever My Girl — Written and Directed by Bethany Ashton Wolf
Faces Places (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Agnès Varda

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

Submergence — Written by Erin Dignam (Also Available on VOD)

James (James McAvoy) is a British agent under the cover of a water engineer, while Danny (Alicia Vikander) is a bio-mathematician working on a deep-sea diving project to explore the origin of life on our planet. On a chance encounter in a remote resort in Normandy where they both prepare for their respective missions, they fall rapidly, and unexpectedly, into each other’s arms, and a deliriously wild love affair develops, even though their jobs are destined to separate them. Danny sets off on a perilous quest to dive to the bottom of the ocean. James’ assignment takes him to Somalia, where he is sucked into a geopolitical vortex that puts him in grave danger. Both characters are subject to different kinds of isolation as they pine for each other; their determination to reconnect becomes as much an existential journey as a love story. (Press materials)

Truth or Dare — Co-Written by Jillian Jacobs

A harmless game of Truth or Dare among friends turns deadly when someone — or something — begins to punish those who tell a lie or refuse the dare. (Press materials)

Find screening info and tickets here.

All I Want — Co-Written by Melissa Center

Mel (Melissa Center) and Andrew (Drew Rausch) have been married for 10 years — in fact, today is their wedding anniversary. To celebrate this special occasion, they’ve invited their family and closest friends to their home to share the evening together, yet as the night grows, Mel reveals surprising news that will shake those relationships around them forever. (Press materials)

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

Pacific Rim Uprising — Co-Written by Kira Snyder and Emily Carmichael
Ismael’s Ghosts — Co-Written by Léa Mysius and Julie Peyr
A Bag of Marbles — Co-Written by Alexandra Geismar
Love, Simon — Co-Written by Elizabeth Berger
The Leisure Seeker — Co-Written by Francesca Archibugi
The 15:17 to Paris — Written by Dorothy Blyskal
The Insult — Co-Written by Joëlle Touma
The Greatest Showman — Co-Written by Jenny Bicks

TV Premieres This Week

I Am Evidence (Documentary) — Directed by Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir (Premieres April 16 on HBO)

“I Am Evidence” exposes the shocking number of untested rape kits in the United States today, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. Despite the power of DNA to solve and prevent crimes, these kits containing potentially crucial evidence languish untested in police evidence storage rooms. Behind each of these kits lies an individual’s unresolved sexual assault case. The film introduces viewers to several of these survivors, who still await justice, as well as the prosecutors, investigators, advocates, and journalists fighting on their behalf. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir.

The Honeymoon Stand Up Special (Comedy Special) — Co-Written by Natasha Leggero (Premieres April 17 on Netflix)

Impending parenthood does funny things to Natasha Leggero and Moshe Kasher, who dissect family, relationships, and more in a trio of stand-up specials. (Press materials)

Charité (Miniseries) — Written by Dorothee Schön and Sabine Thor-Wiedemann (Premieres April 19 on Netflix)

The series centers on the accomplishments of several famous German physicians and scientists at the prestigious Charité hospital in Berlin towards the end of the 19th century. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

A Demon Within — Co-Written by Michelle Beyda-Scott and Helene Gonze (DVD, April 17)
Russian Doll (VOD/DVD, April 17)
The Post — Co-Written by Liz Hannah (VOD/DVD, April 17)
A Taxi Driver — Written by Yu-na Eom (DVD, April 17)

Follow Women and Hollywood on Twitter @WomenaHollywood and Melissa Silverstein@melsil.

To contact Women and Hollywood, email melissa@womenandhollywood.com.